Delay Pedals - Analog vs Digital

bairdy97

'Sup,

Just wondering, are there any major differences between analog and digital delay? Was going to buy a delay pedal soon, looking around the £60 mark, liking the sound of those mooer ones.

Cheers

rpr

A lot of "analog"pedals are actually digital ones voiced for analog type sounds. I got a cheap belcat one, doesn't do extreme oscillation sounds, but is a nice and musical sounding. True analog delays use bucket brigade circuitry, which isn't cost effective these days. I could be wrong, but i suspect the Mooer is digital 

Generally digital is crisper and more hi-fi than analog, and doesn't degenerate the sound like analog 

viz

If 300ms is enough, try and get a keeley ad9. It's GORGEOUS.

Cirrus

Typically analog(ue) delay pedals typically have repeats that gradually lose high end (and sometimes low end too, which I really like) so they tend towards a more ringy midrange sound if you turn the feedback up. At the same time they get gradually more distorted and compressed so you end up with echoes that seem to sit back in the mix relative to your dry sound. They often also go into self oscillation if you turn the repeats up, and frequently short delay times give you brighter sounds than long delay times.

Digital delays will do whatever they're programmed to do - they might have repeats that are perfectly clear, better than CD quality, for as long as you like. Or they might be designed to degrade like analogue, or anything else - modulation, filters, whatever the designers want from the pedal.

EricTheWeary

Depends to some extent how you intend to use it as to which you need but, as has been said, it will probably be digital or analog voiced digital.
Delays also tend to be the stronger element of a lot of multi fx. For example the Zoom ms70 CDR is about £80 and will give you a whole range of delays to try plus chorus and reverb settings but it will need a bit more thought to use it than a 3 knob delay pedal will.

mike_l

I have a Boss DD-6, which I prefer for "modern"-rock type sounds and longer delays. It also has a lot of features like warp and reverse, so is very versatile.

I also have a Visual Sound Axle Grease analogue delay, which I prefer for "Classic"-rock (IE Hendrix/Floyd) type sounds and shorter delays. More limited on the features, IE does straight delay with a bit of wobble.

 

Both are good, depending on what you want.

viz

I think it's like this:
Analoge delay adds ambience
Digital delay adds special effects.

daveyh

I have a MXR Carbon Copy as main delay (typical big solo thing) and a Guyatone mini Digi delay for slapback. I specifically wanted the DD 'crispness' for that playing in a bathroom vibe.

ThePrettyDamned

I'd go for the digitech digidelay, which is far better sounding than it should be for the money, and has a nice tape mode on it for that 'sat back in the mix' thing, as well as a crystal clear straight digital one, and a lush modulated one, too.

The axle grease sounds amazing if it's analogue you want, or the mxr carbon copy. If funds allowed, I'd get a deluxe memory boy from electro harmonix, which is bonkers - more of an analogue special effects pedal than ambience!

Sporky

I had a Carbon Copy, and a Memory Boy, and a small-box Memory Man.

Overall I think I prefer digital; you can get the nice crisp repeats and you can also get the tape/analogue emulation and they sound perfectly good.

Also a Yamaha UD-Stomp, which is just epic.

Shark_Eyes

I picked up a Belcat 'analogue' delay for £10 which does me for ambient stuff, I'd check this out as you can't really go wrong for £10.

monquixote

I've had both. 

The analog stuff only really wins for raygun feedback stuff when you tweak the knobs. Some of the digital ones simulate this, but they don't really nail it. 

The Memory Toy is probably the cheapest "proper" analog and sounds good if dark.

Cirrus

monquixote said:

The Memory Toy is probably the cheapest "proper" analog and sounds good if dark.

I'm a big fan of this one. I thought because it was cheap I should improve on it at some point but so far any "better" analog delay I've tried hasn't had the fun mojo of the Memory Toy. It's dark, the repeats melt into ringing washes of noise beautifully, I love it. The only criticism is that the fixed modulation only sounds good at certain delay time positions and changing it involves messing round with trim pots.

Dave_Mc

rpr said:

(a) A lot of "analog"pedals are actually digital ones voiced for analog type sounds. I got a cheap belcat one, doesn't do extreme oscillation sounds, but is a nice and musical sounding. True analog delays use bucket brigade circuitry, which isn't cost effective these days. I could be wrong, but i suspect the Mooer is digital 

(b) Generally digital is crisper and more hi-fi than analog, and doesn't degenerate the sound like analog 

(a) I haven't tried it, but I think the ana echo (I'm guessing that's the one he's talking about) is a genuine DM2 clone (which is analogue). You're right, though, a lot of supposed analogue delays are actually hybrid/analogue-voiced digital, so it pays to be wary and do your research.

(b) Agreed. This is obviously an over-generalisation (not least when you consider the point we previously made about analogue-voiced digital pedals ) ), but normally digital delays (at least those ones which aren't masquerading as analogue delays) have hi-fi/clear repeats, whereas analogue delays have muddier, less distinct repeats. It just depends on what you want, really.

mike257

Digital delays often have more control, although the Deluxe Memory Boy is a great exception to that rule - tap tempo, subdivisions, control over modulation, adjustable top-end roll off on your repeats and an effects loop so you can add pedals that further mangle your repeats!  I've got one on my board for all the tempo synced clever stuff and a Carbon Copy for basic ambience, eem to cover all the bases between the two.

If you're on a limited budget, take a look at the thread floating round about Nux pedals - they're cheap, probably have to be shipped from China, but they do a feature laden delay with presets and tap tempo that I'm sure is under your original budget.  Various forum members have reported back positively on the stuff they've bought by the brand given the price/features ratio.

ICBM

What's really funny is that originally, analogue was the poor relation and digital the expensive, superior option. It's gone so far the other way that many 'analogue' delays are now cheap digitals with deliberately reduced quality.

There's more than one way of doing digital too. Most digitals keep the entire delay in the digital domain, which means no loss of quality no matter how many repeats. Early ones, including the Boss DD-3 which is still basically the same as the original DD-2, have only the delay line itself digital - the feedback circuitry is still analogue, so in some ways it behaves more like an analogue delay but with crisper repeats and a longer delay time. (The DD-3 also uses only 12-bit A/D conversion, so it's a bit lower-fi than most other which usually use at least 16-bit.) That's why Keeley can offer a mod to the DD-3 which deliberately degrades the feedback more quickly.

There's also the difference between those which digitise the entire signal path including the dry signal, and those which keep the dry analogue and only digitise the repeats... the digital-dry type can sometimes cause trouble in a parallel FX loop, the digital-repeat-only type doesn't.

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

What's really funny is that originally, analogue was the poor relation and digital the expensive, superior option. It's gone so far the other way that many 'analogue' delays are now cheap digitals with deliberately reduced quality.

LOL